In Broadcast - In Show Guide 2016 - 18


18

www.inbroadcast.com | IBC2016 InShow Guide | 9-13 September

A Continuing Evolution
for Screen Systems
Subtitling is a sector of the industry that is still in a state of flux...

I

t's always healthy to review past
commentary, make comparisons
and evaluate what educated guesses
have emerged as realities, and which
observations
have
transformed
into tangible threats or indeed
opportunities.
Taking a glimpse back to 2015,
Screen dwelled on the vast and
rapid
changes
that
broadcast
manufacturers had to make to stay
relevant to customers. We spoke
of being surprised by some of the
transformations and even shocked
by the rate of how other predicted
changes developed.
Well a year on and Screen's product
and business strategies continue
to undergo subtle adjustments to
continually align with an industry that
is undeniably still in a state of flux.
Hardware v. Software
Screen's
Polistream
subtitle
transmission systems have long been
at the centre of many of the world's
broadcaster's access services and
translated/captioned foreign content.
Throughout their lives they too have
undergone IT advancements improving
their
capability
and
efficiency
(to provide for decreasing space
budgets and higher sustainability
standards), but recently Polistream's
transformations have been more
radical.
The diminishing requirements for
hardware instigated the introduction
of Polistream in Virtual Machine form
and made available as a BYOD (Bring
Your Own Device) option, allowing
customers for the first time to run our
technology on their own hardware.
A major rebalancing of OPEX over
CAPEX spend within the industry and
indeed the emergence of pop-up
channels were the key drivers to the
introduction of Screen's Polistream
rental option.
However, as alluded to at the start,
the broadcast industry continues

to contradict certain trends and
is still capable of throwing in fast
spinning curve-balls. Just as we
were comfortable with what felt like
an all-encompassing transmission
product portfolio which was shifting
ever more into a virtual environment,
emerging markets such as Russia have
expressed a need for hardware.
And our misconception of being able
to continue selling our Polistream
hardware rapidly evaporated due to
requests for a technical specification
beyond the capability of what was our
only available subtitle transmission
solution.
Never before seen at IBC, Screen's
new Polistream U8000 has taken what
we had considered to be an already
exemplary product to a completely
new level.
Housed in a full-length 1U unit, the
U8000 is now based on a Windows
Server 2012 R2 Operating System. The
introduction of dual power supplies
enables customers to swap out UPS
batteries with zero downtime for
subtitle transmission.

Following a period of redevelopment,
centred mostly on simplifying its
complex
licensing
configuration,
Screen proudly announced in June
2016 that Wincaps Standard Edition
was available for download directly
from its website.
The pricing structure was also
adjusted to work better with what
can be irregular contracts for the
freelancer. With a seven day free
trial available, Wincaps Standard
Edition is now available on a one
year subscription basis for £390,
for six months at £195 or a monthly
subscription costs £39 per month
(costs are plus VAT at the applicable
rate).
The online purchasing platform has
proven to be hugely popular and it also
allows Screen to easily manage and
offer the likes of academic institutions
preferential rates and specified trial
periods for, as an example subtitling
training courses.
Partnership Strategy
That's product development over the
past year, so what about the evolved
business strategy we spoke of earlier?
Partnership working has always been
a priority for Screen and the resultant
product integration has led to better
and more robust and efficient products
for the end-user.
Over the past few months Screen
has strengthened its partnerships

Redevelopment
The extreme pressure freelance
subtitlers are under both in terms
of time and in level of rates they
are able to charge is increasing with
other burdens being applied, for
one, the cost of subtitle creation and
preparation software.
As the developer and
supplier of the Wincaps
subtitling
software
suite, we have looked
long and hard at
making
what
is
universally accepted
amongst professional
subtitlers as industry
standard
software
and how we make
it simpler to obtain,
and more accessible in
respect of cost.
Partnership: Suitcase TV MediaStor

Polistream U8000 'a completely new level'

team with the intention to open up
our knowledge and incredibly strong
channel connections for the benefit
of third-party products. You may have
seen our 'Open Our Minds to a New
Way of Thinking' advertising campaign
inviting companies to contact us
about developing a market for their
innovations.
MediaStor (powered by Suitcase
TV) is one such new relationship
germinated from this fresh thinking.
MediaStor is our new cost competitive
solution that is specifically designed
for media storage with seamless
expandability of capacity and access
speed.
This new solution uses COTS
technology in a software defined
storage architecture to deliver
outstanding low costs per byte of
stored media. MediaStor's included
Hierarchical Storage Management
application can map your stored
content directly into a Windows™
environment, and can integrate
existing storage into a single managed
hierarchy with full audit trails and
access control.
As an example 1 Petabyte of MAID
Archive storage is available in a
MediaStor solution from just £99k
(Based on a system with a total
capacity 1 Petabyte RAW archive
storage).
www.subtitling.com
http://www.inbroadcast.com http://www.subtitling.com
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